# Ticket drop alerts, sneaker drop alerts and restock alerts that ring

Fans and creators · https://lfg.gm/drop-and-restock-alerts · Updated 2026-10-17

A drop alert only helps if it gets you to the screen before the drop is gone, and a banner buried under the day's notifications rarely does. LFG Alarm is a social alarm clock for iPhone, Android and lfg.gm in a desktop browser, and it covers a drop in four ways: a time alarm set a few minutes before a ticket on-sale or a sneaker release, a post alarm on the brand's or artist's X account for the announcement, an anything alarm that the restock monitor you already use can ring, and a shared link so your whole group is rung in the same second. Rocco does not watch store pages himself, so pair LFG Alarm with the monitor you already trust.

## Why a drop needs an alarm, not an alert

The hottest drops are decided in minutes, which is why stores now run queues and lotteries instead of a plain race to the button.

- When presale opened for the Eras Tour in November 2022, Ticketmaster said its site took 3.5 billion system requests, four times its previous peak. It sold more than 2 million tickets that day, then called off the general sale because there were not enough tickets left.
- Nike's SNKRS app runs high-demand releases as a random draw, and trade press reports the entry window is typically about ten minutes, shorter for the hottest pairs.
- Nike has said bots make up 10% to 40% of SNKRS draw entries, and nearly half on hyped releases, all of which it says are removed before winners are picked.

None of that rewards the fastest fingers. It rewards being awake, logged in and in the right tab when the window opens. That is a timing problem, and timing is what an alarm is for.

## Four ways LFG Alarm covers a drop

| What you know | Use | It rings when |
|---|---|---|
| The exact time (an on-sale, a draw, a release) | A [time alarm](https://lfg.gm/wiki/time-alarms) | The clock reaches the minute you set |
| The drop will be announced, but not when | A [post alarm](https://lfg.gm/wiki/post-alarms) on X | The account posts something that means what you described |
| Stock might come back with no warning | An [anything alarm](https://lfg.gm/wiki/anything-alarms) fed by your monitor | Your monitor calls the alarm's private link |
| Your friends want in too | Any of the above, shared | Everyone who joined is rung together |

Most real drops use two of these: a post alarm that catches the date, then a time alarm for the minute itself.

## A time alarm for a drop you can see coming

When the time is public, a time alarm is the strongest ring LFG Alarm has. It rings from the phone itself, so it works with no signal. On iPhone it uses Apple's own alarm system, which rings through silent mode and Focus. On Android it takes over the screen, even when the phone is locked.

Three details make it work for a drop:

- **Set it early.** Ring at 9:50 for a 10:00 on-sale: enough time to sign in, check your saved card and join the waiting room before it opens.
- **Use the drop's time zone.** On-sales are usually announced in the venue's local time. On a shared alarm, pick **Same time zone for everyone** (the default) and LFG Alarm shows what the time is somewhere else, so a friend in London knows a 10:00 AM New York on-sale is 3:00 PM for her for most of the year.
- **Book it as soon as you know.** A time that has already passed today cannot be armed, so set it the day the date is announced, not the morning of.

**Try this.** Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Grok or another AI agent that has the LFG Alarm connector (https://mcp.lfg.gm), not into the LFG Alarm app. The person needs the LFG Alarm app on their phone.

> Use LFG Alarm to set a one-off alarm called Tour on-sale for [date] at 9:50, which is ten minutes before tickets open at 10:00 New York time. Make it a friends alarm, add my friends [username] and [username], ring everyone at the same time, and give me the link.

Why it works: It names the drop, rings early enough to get into the queue, and converts the venue's time so everyone is rung in the same second.

## A post alarm for the announcement

Many drops are announced on X first: a tour date, a release date, "restock at 6pm", a link that goes live without warning. A post alarm has Rocco read each new post from an account and ring only for the ones that mean what you wrote. Nobody needs an X account to set one, only the handle.

Write the rule as you would say it:

- "announces a ticket on-sale or presale date"
- "posts a link to a merch drop or restock"
- "says the release date for a new shoe"

Keep one idea per alarm; a second idea gets a second alarm. Describe the meaning, not a keyword: a post that only says "tomorrow, 10am" over a photo of a shoe box would slip past a keyword alert for "release".

Good accounts to watch are the artist, the band's merch account, the venue, or a world-famous brand such as @Nike. A post alarm can also watch a Twitch or YouTube channel go live, handy when an artist sells limited merch during a stream. See [an alarm for when someone posts](https://lfg.gm/alarm-when-someone-posts) for more rules that work.

## An anything alarm for the restock monitor you already use

LFG Alarm does not check store pages, stock levels or queue pages. Plenty of tools already do: restock monitors, Discord bots, website change monitors, and automation tools such as Zapier, Make and IFTTT. Most of them can call a web link when something changes, and that is all an anything alarm needs.

An anything alarm gives you a private link. When your monitor sends it a web request (an HTTP POST), the alarm rings your phone, and the phones of the friends you shared it with. Set it up like this:

- **Pick a cooldown** of 1, 5, 10, 30 or 60 minutes. Calls during the cooldown are ignored, so a monitor that fires once for every size does not ring you nine times. For a restock, 1 or 5 minutes keeps you quick without the stack.
- **One item per alarm.** Nothing your monitor sends is shown on the alarm, so the alarm's name has to say what happened: "Size 10 back in stock", not "Monitor".
- **Tap Test fire** to check your phone rings before the night you need it.
- **Guard the link** like a password. If it leaks, tap **New URL** and the old one stops working.

Anything alarms are private or shared with friends, never public. For the full pattern, with scripts and automation tools, see [how to get an alert when something happens online](https://lfg.gm/alert-when-something-happens-online) and [how to make any app, script or feed ring your phone](https://lfg.gm/webhook-alarm).

## Bring the group chat

Drops are rarely a solo job. One person grabs the tickets, two more wait in other queues as a backup, and someone in another country is up at an odd hour to help.

Share the alarm with friends and everyone who joined is rung in the same second. A friends alarm has two ways in: **Anyone with the link rides**, so you can drop the `lfg.gm/a/<alarm-code>` link straight into the chat, or **I approve each one**. If you already have a group for these people, open it in **Settings** > **Friends** > **Groups** and tap **Create alarm with this group**.

Pin the plan as a creator's note, which everyone sees when they open the alarm: "Queue opens 9:50. Floor or lower bowl only, max 4 each. Say in the chat the moment you are through." After it rings, the [wake board](https://lfg.gm/wiki/wake-board) shows who tapped I'm up and how fast, so you know who is actually at a screen.

Riding a friend's alarm is free, and the app is free to download. See [group alarms](https://lfg.gm/group-alarms) for more on shared alarms.

## How it rings on each phone and on a laptop

- **Time alarms:** a real alarm on both phones. On iPhone it rings through silent mode and Focus.
- **Post and anything alarms on Android:** a full-screen alarm, even on Do Not Disturb.
- **Post and anything alarms on iPhone:** a time-sensitive alert with the alarm's own sound, which can come through Focus but respects the silent switch. Keep the ringer on the night of a drop.
- **A laptop:** rings only while an lfg.gm tab is open and the laptop is awake and online, for up to ten minutes. Phone browsers never ring. See [alarms on your laptop](https://lfg.gm/alarms-on-your-laptop).

## Three drops, start to finish

**A concert on-sale at 10:00.** Maya wants tickets for a tour that has not been announced. Weeks out, she sets a post alarm on the artist's account: "announces tour dates or a ticket on-sale". It rings on a Tuesday night; the on-sale is Friday at 10:00 New York time. She makes a friends time alarm for 9:50, same moment for everyone, and adds Sam and Priya, who will queue on their own laptops as backups. Her note says which section to aim for and the ticket limit.

**A sneaker release.** Theo knows the draw opens at a set time and the window is short. He sets a one-off time alarm for two minutes before it opens, with a loud sound, and a second post alarm on the brand's account for "announces a surprise restock or a second draw", in case pairs come back later.

**A limited merch run.** A band posts that a small run of tour posters will drop "sometime this week". Jun's restock monitor already watches the store page, so he points it at an anything alarm called "Poster restock", with a 1 minute cooldown, shared with two friends who also want one. A post alarm on the band's merch account covers the case where they announce the time instead.

## Make it in the app

**A post alarm for the announcement:**

1. On **Alarms**, tap **👀 Social**.
2. Pick **X**, type the account's handle (or paste a link to it) and tap **Next**.
3. Under **What should wake you?**, write the moment in your own words, for example "announces a ticket on-sale date".
4. Check that Rocco's one-line summary is right, choose who it is for, and tap **That's it**.

**An anything alarm for your monitor:**

1. On **Alarms**, tap **🔮 Anything**.
2. Under **Cooldown**, pick **1m** or **5m** for a restock.
3. Choose private or friends and tap **Arm it**.
4. Copy the link from the card, paste it into your monitor's webhook setting, and tap **Test fire**.

## Common mistakes

- Setting the alarm for the drop's minute. Ring 5 to 10 minutes early so you are signed in and waiting.
- Reading the on-sale time as your own time. Check the time zone the brand or venue used.
- Using one anything alarm for five products. Nothing the monitor sends is shown, so you will not know which one came back.
- Leaving an iPhone on silent for a post or anything alarm. Those respect the silent switch; time alarms do not.
- Expecting LFG Alarm to buy for you. It wakes a person; it never enters a draw, joins a queue or checks out.

## Questions

### Does LFG Alarm watch store pages for restocks?
No. Rocco watches accounts on X, Twitch and YouTube, token prices and wallets, but not shops. For store pages, use a restock or website change monitor that can call a web link, and point it at an anything alarm.

### Is this a ticket or sneaker bot?
No. LFG Alarm only rings people. It never enters draws, holds a place in a queue or buys anything. In the US, a March 2025 executive order directs the FTC to enforce the BOTS Act, which bans software that gets around ticket purchase limits.

### Will it ring if my phone is on silent?
A time alarm, yes, on both phones. A post or anything alarm rings full screen on Android even on Do Not Disturb; on iPhone it is a time-sensitive alert that respects the silent switch, so keep the ringer on.

### Can friends in other countries be on the same alarm?
Yes. With **Same time zone for everyone**, one alarm rings everyone at the same moment, and each person sees the time in their own zone.

### Is it free?
The app is free to download, time alarms are free, and riding an alarm a friend made is free.

### Can I set a drop alarm from ChatGPT or Claude?
A time alarm, yes, through the [LFG Alarm connector](https://lfg.gm/agents). Post and anything alarms are made in the app or on lfg.gm for now.

## Sources and further reading

- [NBC News, Ticketmaster cancels public sale for Taylor Swift tour, citing high demand (November 2022)](https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/ticketmaster-cancels-public-sale-taylor-swift-tour-citing-high-demand-rcna57758)
- [BrooklynVegan, Ticketmaster addresses "historically unprecedented demand" for Taylor Swift tickets](https://www.brooklynvegan.com/ticketmaster-addresses-historically-unprecedented-demand-for-taylor-swift-tix/)
- [Sneaker News, Nike on bots in SNKRS draws (May 2023)](https://sneakernews.com/2023/05/03/nike-snkrs-bots/)
- [SoleSavy, how the SNKRS app handles bots and draws](https://solesavy.com/nike-snkrs-app-bot-protection/)
- [Federal Register, Executive Order 14254: Combating unfair practices in the live entertainment market (2025)](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/04/03/2025-05906/combating-unfair-practices-in-the-live-entertainment-market)
- [Time alarms](https://lfg.gm/wiki/time-alarms), [Post alarms](https://lfg.gm/wiki/post-alarms) and [Anything alarms](https://lfg.gm/wiki/anything-alarms) in the LFG Alarm wiki

LFG Alarm is not affiliated with Ticketmaster, Nike, Zapier, Make or IFTTT.

## Keep exploring

- [KST to your time: convert a Seoul drop and set the alarm](https://lfg.gm/kst-to-my-time.md): Convert any Seoul drop time to yours and ring the whole fan chat at once.
- [How to get an alarm when someone posts on X](https://lfg.gm/alarm-when-someone-posts.md): Describe the post you are waiting for; Rocco rings you when it lands.
- [How creators can catch a trend before it peaks](https://lfg.gm/creator-trend-alarms.md): Alarms that ring when the accounts, channels and feeds you trust move first.
- [How to make any app, script or feed ring your phone](https://lfg.gm/webhook-alarm.md): An anything alarm is a private link that rings you, and your friends, whenever something calls it.
- [The fastest way to make a group alarm with your friends](https://lfg.gm/group-alarms.md): Save your people once as a group, then one tap makes an alarm that rings every phone together.
- [Time alarms](https://lfg.gm/wiki/time-alarms.md): Once or repeating, together for a set moment or local for a routine, ringing with no signal needed.

## About LFG Alarm

LFG Alarm is a social alarm clock for iPhone, iPad and Android. It rings for times and for moments (a post on X, a stream going live, a token price, a wallet buying, an event starting), and one shared link makes every phone that joined ring together. Rocco, the cat inside the app, does the watching and the waking.

- Get it on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gm.lfg.app
- Download on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6821089085
- Use it from an AI agent: add the MCP server https://mcp.lfg.gm as a connector, then ask in plain words.
- Every page for agents: https://lfg.gm/llms.txt